The present disclosure relates in general to position information that indicates the position of a structural element disposed in a vehicle.
Specifically, the present disclosure relates, inter alia, to a cladding element comprising a transponder, an item of position information being stored by the transponder. The disclosure additionally relates, inter alia, to a vehicle having such a cladding element, a method comprising reading out the position information from the transponder, a corresponding computer program, corresponding apparatuses, and a system comprising such a cladding element and such an apparatus.
Vehicles nowadays have a multiplicity of built-in components. In vehicles for passenger transport, in particular, it is often the case that multiples of a component of a particular type are built in, e.g., respectively one for each of the possible passengers. If information relating to a particular component disposed in the vehicle is to be logged or stored, this particular component may be identified on the basis of its position.
EP 2 693 406 A2 and US 2014/0039717 A1 disclose a system for documenting the status of a component on board a means of transport. Multimedia information concerning the status of the component is logged by means of a mobile recording device. By means of a transmission arrangement, the recorded items of multimedia information can then be communicated to a central logbook arrangement, such that a multimedia logbook entry can be generated there in order to document the status of the component. The mobile recording device may have a locating arrangement for determining the position of the mobile recording device and/or for determining the position of the component. Position determination may be satellite-based, for example. The position data may likewise be transmitted to the central logbook arrangement. The mobile recording device may have an identification arrangement for identifying the component. For example, a code that designates the component may be read out from an RFID transponder, and the component identified on the basis of the read-out code. The information concerning the identified component can be integrated into the recorded multimedia status information, and likewise communicated to the central logbook arrangement. The multimedia logbook entry can thus be used to log the component at which the status information was recorded.
DE 10 2010 035 374 A1 and EP 2 423 108 A2 and US 2013/0053779 A1 disclose a system for collecting defect data of structural elements in a passenger cabin of a vehicle. Provided for this purpose is a locating arrangement, which is configured to determine a position of a structural element in three-dimensional space. The locating arrangement may have, for example, a series of base stations, fixedly disposed in a passenger cabin, which are configured to enable the position of a pointing arrangement to be ascertained. For this purpose, the locating arrangement may use measurement of differences in propagation times of signals exchanged between the individual base stations and the pointing arrangement. Following ascertainment of a defect of a structural element, the respective structural element is located by means of the locating arrangement. The latter forwards the located position of the structural element to the structural-element identification arrangement. There, the identification of the respective structural element is obtained from its three-dimensional position, by means of a structural-element identification database. Furthermore, RFID transponders containing structural-element identification data may be provided for structural elements. In addition to the structural-element identification based on the three-dimensional position determination based on propagation time, by means of the pointing arrangement, the structural-element identification data of the transponders of nearby structural elements may be read out, in order to improve the structural-element identification.
Against this background, it is desirable that it is easy to provide and log an item of position information for a component disposed in a vehicle.